all in a days work...

So i try to make every tattoo i do a tattoo that im excited about doing. it just makes the whole process so much easier when im working on my 6th hour of linework when im just super stoked about how its going to look.

while that may make it easier, getting to that point isnt all that easy sometimes.
example, i was brought this referance photo for a tattoo. now, its not all that bad but honestly ive seen this tattooed about a dozen times and i have never liked the results no matter how well the tattoo was done.



add to that he wants to make the hair even longer so it fills nearly half his upper arm with random hair filler and of course add some spider web back ground. sigh.

try one:



i did finish the head band/ scarf on this simply for the fact that i knew i wouldnt enjoy tattooing it. i dig skull tattoos but i put so much effort into the shapes and textures that adding paint on top of it is hard to do and feel like it looks right.

onto try two:



i realy liked the hair on this one as well as the designs on the face. i tried to create a rendering more reliant on the linework this time. however the clients a 5 foot nothings skinny mexican kid so the composition just wasnt going to fit on his shoulder and look right no matter how far i shrunk it down.

so try three for the day:



i ended up putting the 'spider web' into the scarf design and tried to further push the simplicity factor/ line structure on the skull to make it readable with face paint on it etc. to balance that out i bumped up the amount of detail in everything else. a ton of attention to line weight and color contrasts and i think this may be our winner. ive got a few days until the tattoo needs to be started so ive got time to think and redraw a few more times to something im excited about. but i think this is preety close.






oh yeah, and REFRESH! :)

You know even strong man falls, and even the wise man has to learn...

Pretty cute huh? :)
Pretty slow day today but I came home to my aunt sue & uncle Greg which was nice. We went out for dinner and had a steak the size of a 4 year old.

Wish I had more to chat about but I'm pretty worn out & it's almost 12. So this is what ya get ;)

A hopefully productive day tomorrow and then I'm off to see Sarah on my days off :)

With you in your dreams...

Ian Michael White.

I've just come from Ian's funeral. To be honest it had to have been one of the most depressing things I've ever witnessed. Friends that have remained cold and matter of fact about death inside of there own family were on their knees sobbing.

I think that alone is testament of how amazing, and what a gift Ian was to everyone.

Ian was all the things that I talk about wanting to be, and that friends of mine strive towards. So loving, caring, grateful, honest, non judging not ever seeming to ever let any sort of negative thought pass into his mind. Always a smile, always happy, always full of love for everyone and everything. 

Endless patience and an awe for all that was the world and nature.

How amazing is it to have ever even met someone that fits this description so solidly, let alone to have him in your life shining onto yours. And to be able to say all this knowing that no one who had ever met him would disagree one bit.

Man....

Ian loved music, he loved nature, the northwest, things made with love, family, brutal cold weather, wind chimes and people.

Today standing in the cemetery, friends playing songs he loved on their guitars if the weather had been any colder it would have been unbearable. And as he was laid to rest into the ground the wind blew with such a force and the sound of wind chimes bounced over the hills. I've never felt such a forcefull wind feel so much like a hug in my entire life.

I've cried so hard my breath has been taken from me, I've bit my lip until I tasted blood trying to stop.

I feel that with him being gone we all need to let the negativity go and just love more. So that we might at least attempt to fill this massive hole he's left.

I don't really want to go onto anymore sad rambling, but you'll always be in my heart Ian. Even when it hurts this bad.

...I don't want you to cry and weep, oh
I want you to go on living your life
I'm not sleeping an endless sleep, oh
'Cause in your heart
You have all of our good times...

3/3 less depressing?

I've previously talked about the amount of prep time I was trying to put forth towards my tattoos. But what I failed to note is the amount of composition drafts and piles of reference used to even get to the point of starting on a final idea.

I have not only thousands of random photos, paintings and sketches I've found and kept for some reason. Some little thing that jumps out at me. Maybe the hue of a sunset, the filigree on an old sewing machine or knife.

But also tons of self produced reference. I talk to people at the studio very regularly about not googling "flower tattoo" but rather "flowers". Using some one elses tattoo as reference is using a starting point that has already been filtered threw some one elses mind, ideas, and skill. Start as fresh as you can!

I try to take that as far as I can as often as I can by creating my own reference material. All you tattoo people out there know when you see that sugar skull girl or that battle worn skull that Josh, and Nikko, and Nate and every body that's ripping there tattoo is using the exact same reference photo. Mike D. Touches on that a little in his keeping it real book/ DVD about trying to find your own fresh reference. It'll be worth all the effort when your joker tattoo doesn't blend in with all the others.

Any how I do this a few ways all of witch involve seeing your reference in real life. Wether I make a quick sketch, cell phone photo, or a purposely lit composed photo.

From flowers to rocks, seeing it first hand unlocks doors in your mind that a pic off the Internet just does not.

Examples that come to mind, when working on drawing koi I went out to catch a great big carp to look at and photo first hand. There are differences between a koi and a carp but it's close enough. Any how, moments after pulling it out of the water I saw so many little details that explained so much of what I'd seen in Japanese tattoos. Why in old tradition japanese tattoos does the koi have these weird W shaped scales behind the head? Because they do!

Example two, I was in NYC at the met a summer or two ago and came across there display of a Japanese garden complete with giant crazy looking rocks. I had always assumed much of the Japanese tattoo style was just that, stylized. But turns out in japan they actually have big crazy looking black rocks! So many little details and things seen in real life unlock answers to questions that would have taken  hours apon hours of sketching to figure out how to make it look right. There it is right in front of you! Things you'd never have even thought of!

My trips to the northwest reveal to me dozens of new bright and amazing flowers I'd never dreamed of existed. Now in my folder of amazing flowers to add to my compositions when you just can't bare to do your billionth tiger Lilly tattoo.

My final example explains my top photo. Skulls! I've drawn skulls for decades! Referencing other artists and piles of photos, and yet when my girl friend handed me a complete skull it was like a football stadium sized light went on in my head every time I twisted or turned it! It answered questions I didn't know I even had inside of 5 minutes of looking at it. Having it to turn, pose and light has become amazingly beneficial to my current work.

So take the easy road to awesome work and go take a walk with a camera, catch a fish, look at rocks!

2 for two

Sorry for such a lacking photo. Turns out my hipstimatic app is much like a real hipster in that neither likes to work that often.

Anyways, scenes like these always give me mixed feelings. As I wander aimlessly through random thrift and consignment shops I often wonder how this all ended up here. I can't help but think family members are selling lost loved ones things so they don't have to look at them walking around the house.

Sad.

So my point. I'm walking around these places and every time I find a booth like this I get super excited! I love love love old tools. Esp monkey wrenches, especially when there's tons of them!

Then I look around at this hard and time built collection and I see a little of that old man who put this together. 

I actually went to an exhibit at the Sheldon art gallery in Lincoln once to see what was new, and they had this room converted into an old shed with loads of shelves chocked full of tools and bolts etc. They had taken it apart from the old mans house and reconstructed it inside. It was amazing. It was like looking at memories of a person I'd never known.

Anyhow, I kinda think of that when I see this type of thing. No man just gets rid of all his tools. This man is gone, and his collection being given away for 75 cents a piece. 

It kinda feels like it's something that should be passed down. 

The only thing I took from my grandparents house after my PaPa passed was one old tool box. I actually use it and the tools, and I've always left the top tray full of everything that he left in it.

Maybe that's it? Maybe wandering around consignment stores hunting for old garage stuff I'm just looking for a memory.

A day at a time

I stole this pic from the blog of one of the artist from conspiracy inc. I don't recall which one. Guess you'll have to look threw them all to figure it out!

So I'm going to attempt posting everyday this month. Sarah's going to as well as part of some website/ win stuff thing, but I'm just trying to keep up with her for fun :)

So I'd say that a lot of them will be pretty light on photos, heck even light on words. But I'll try to make them worthwhile either way.

So let's get with it already!

What's new? What's going on?
Not to much is new other then the winter weather creeping in ever so sneaky. The shops grand opening seems to have gone well and business is picking up. I really owe my clientele quite a bit. Not only do they continue coming to me but often bring me there friends as well. This last week I scheduled a 3/4 sleeve for one of my clients and a half leg sleeve of awesomeness for one of her freinds!

With these pieces and some in progress work I'm very excited for the making of my new portfolio that should be done very early January. It'll be another hardbound book but that's about were the similarities end. Very excited, I'm sure I'll keep you updated. 

I'm currently trying to work on alot of larger Japanese work, I think I'm really starting to find my place in that niche. I'm excited to show people what I'm doing when these few pieces are finished. To contrast that I'm doing a few large borderline illustrative and one large very traditional japanese tattoos as well. 

Outside of work I'm trying to be preemptive about getting the winter time blues. I think my daily commute really contributes to my isolation, get up, drive to work, drive home, sleep, repeat.

I usually cure it with travel, and though I plan to be in Portland in December, it's just a bandaid. So I'm trying to come with some sort of social thing to do in sxc to make freinds/ hangout with friends. I'm thinking a weekly drawing club/night would be fun but most of my interested friends are in Omaha/ Lincoln so I'm not sure how well this idea will shape up. But it's trying?

The weather. The move. The commute. My friend Ian not waking up Friday night these are most def things that contribute to bumming me out.

I think that's probably enough for one night, gotta save something for the rest of the night right?

I look in the stars and I remember ...

world wide. thought id make a post that was just a back log of photos. haven't done that for a while, and I've got some time to kill so here goes :)

I've been talking about going to Japan on a trip for quite some time. After talking about it with some friends in Portland that also would like to go I think ive got a lose plan. Or an idea anyways...



first i head to Omaha.



home of DUP @ liquid courage tattoo, were my friend Jason is getting tattooed later this afternoon btw



Jeremy also works at liquid courage. i think i may need a tattoo from him down the road, his stuffs looking pretty good these days.



any how, a quick jump to Portland is next!

Portland is home to my friends Joe and Dom, formerly of Living art tattoo. They are now, or soon to be, under the name "Dead Gods tattoo".



Joe is coming along on the trip, the more the better!



Dom may as well? im not really sure. but this good luck cat he did is awesome right?



Random note: Joe and Dom are tattooing my entire back together stretching from my neck that Joe put 16 ish hours into so far, to my ribs/stomach that Dom is tattooing solo, all the way down the top of all the work Sean herman did on my lower leg. getting filled up :)



the coast in Portland, something i've oddly enough never seen in person. I will be in Portland fora few days before the next leg in our trip. ill spend most of it tattooing and maybe some getting tattooed. hopefully ill find room to see the coast.



Bea and Bob were in Portland and DID see the ocean!



her photos look great, you should head over to the link ----> over here, that says Beas blog and check them out. good stuff :)



and if your going to fly to japan you may as well stop in hawaii for a minute right?



we'll be there for a day or two? tattooing may just happen there.



then japan! i have no idea what city we will head to... but this is tokyo



if we end up in Yokohama hopefully we could be fortunate enough for a trip here.



yellow blaze tattoo, home of this one guy.



whats his name?



oh yeah, Shige!

any how, play that back in reverse for the second half of the trip and there we have it! omaha to portland, 2-7 days in portland. portland to hawaii, 1 or 2 days in hawaii. hawaii to japan, 4 or 5 days in japan. japan to hawaii, 1 or 2 days there, hawaii to portland, 3 or so days there, portland to omaha. done!

mostly the route is set that way for 3 reasons. 1, its actually cheaper to fly that way then direct to japan from Omaha and i want to fly alone the least amount possible. 2, a direct flight would last foooreeevvveeerr and i just don't think I'm up to it having time to decompress would be great. And breaking up all the flying with some time in hawaii doesnt sound to shabby. we know people in almost every stop so we can couch crash instead of having to find hotels and what not in a bunch of different locations. and of course 3, why not?